A U.S. Senate field hearing about the alleged collection tactics at Fairview Health Services has begun with Sen. Al Franken questioning whether the practices has hurt patient care.

The hearing on about patient access to care and privacy began at 10 a.m. Wednesday, May 30, at the Minnesota State Capitol, with Franken remarking the allegations hurt care and possibly health costs.

First to testify was Minnesota Attorney General Lori Swanson, who recently released a report critical of the tactics of Fairview and its contractor Accretive Health.

Fairview lacked control of the process and “Accretive thought it was above … law,” Swanson testified.

One of the witnesses scheduled to testify offered a preview of her comments Tuesday.

Jean Ross said the collection issue surfaced when her grandson was being treated in 2010 at Fairview Ridges Hospital in Burnsville after the 13-month-old boy had been rushed to the emergency room with what turned out to be an acute inflammation of the brain called encephalitis.

In a news release issued Tuesday by the Minnesota Nurses Association, Ross recalled how she left her grandson for a few minutes and returned to find her daughter weeping, shaking and unable to control herself.

“I was sure the doctor had stepped into the room while I was out taking a bathroom break and delivered devastating news about my grandson,” said Ross, a leader of a national nurses union group, in the news release. “My daughter explained to me that while I was gone, a woman had slipped into the room and asked her if she wanted to pay all or a portion of her bill right now.”

In April, Franken sent a detailed list of questions about collection tactics at Fairview to leaders of Accretive Health, the Chicago-based company that worked for two years at the Minneapolis-based system on billing and collection issues.

Also scheduled to testify were an Accretive Health official and Mark Eustis, the retiring chief executive at Fairview who hired the Chicago-based company. But Eustis was replaced by Fairview Board chairman Charles Mooty.

Ross, the nurses union leader who worked at Fairview Southdale Hospital in Edina for 35 years, also is scheduled to testify.

Ross said in the news release that her daughter had another run-in with collections staff at Fairview Ridges after giving birth to her daughter in February. That was just after Fairview broke its contract with Accretive Health on billing matters.

“My daughter did not need that type of stress right after giving birth,” Ross said in the news release. “Nor did she need to be harassed by a debt collector when she was a nervous wreck worrying about her 13-month-old son inside the ER. What happened in both instances was inexcusable.”

A Fairview spokesman did not respond to an email Tuesday seeking comment. A spokeswoman for Accretive Health offered no comment.

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